Hardness of approximation, aka inapproximability.

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number of PCP queries

we know from the PCP theorem that $PCP[O(log(n)),O(1)]=NP$,what if we choose specific number of queries will the theorem hold ?
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What do these Codes mean? [closed]

Code 1- public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { if (inGame) { checkApple(); checkCollision(); move(); } repaint(); } --------------------------------------… Code 2- public void ...
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127 views

Smoothed analysis of approximation algorithms

Smoothed analysis has been applied many times to understand the runtime of exact algorithms for many problems like linear programming and k-means. There are fairly general results in this realm, for ...
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407 views

How to start studying topics Hardness of approximation and PCP's

Recently I have done an introductory course on complexity theory ( which covered 90% of sipser text book). Now I would like to study the topics Hardness of approximation and PCP's. Can you please ...
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proving $P \subseteq PCP(0,O(log(n))$ [closed]

I was working on proving this one and I've solve one direction as follows : to prove that $P \subseteq PCP(0,logn)$ I said : let $M$ be deterministic polynomial TM that accepts $L \in P$ ,we want to ...
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143 views

Hitting sets with a subfamily

Let $F$ be a family of $d$-element subsets of a finite universe $U$ of objects. A family $H$ of $k$-element subsets of $U$, with $1 \le k < d$, is a $(k,d)$-hitting-set of $F$ if for each $V \in F$ ...
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79 views

Approximation for accumulative set cover

Let $S_1,\ldots,S_m\subseteq U$ be subsets of a set $U$ of size $\lvert U\rvert=n$. Over all permutations $\pi$ of the set $\\{1,\ldots,m\\}$, I want to maximize the quantity \begin{equation} ...
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Does Dinur's proof of PCP Theorem imply a procedure for reconstructing a witness?

In Section 3.2 of On Syntactic versus Computational Views on Approximability by Khanna, et al., the authors state that an adaptation of the results from Proof Verification and Hardness of ...
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hardness of approximating the chromatic number in graphs with bounded degree

I am looking for hardness results on vertex coloring of graphs with bounded degree. Given a graph $G(V,E)$, we know that for any $\epsilon>0$, it's hard to approximate $\chi(G)$ within a factor ...
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108 views

Hardness of approximating |V|+(size of vertex cover)

I know that UGC implies a hardness of 2 for vertex cover, but is there a way to have this hardness on instances where the size of the vertex cover is at least $(1-\epsilon)\frac{|V|}2$? More generally ...
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Inappoximability status of Max One in Three SAT for satisfiable instances

What is the inapproximability status of Max-One-in-Three SAT for satisfiable instances?
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Hardness of approximation without the PCP theorem

An important application of the PCP theorem is that it yields "hardness of approximation" type results. In some relatively simpler cases one can prove such hardness without PCP. Is there, however, any ...
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158 views

What is the best-known inapproximability result for MIN-3CNF-DELETION?

I am really curious what the best-known inapproximability result is for MIN-3CNF-DELETION. To clarify, this is the problem of minimizing the number of unsatisfied clauses in a CNF SAT formula with at ...
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194 views

Approximability of the genus problem

What is currently known about the approximability of the genus problem? A preliminary search tells me that a constant factor approximation is trivial for sufficiently dense graphs, and an ...
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177 views

Is 3SAT problem APX-hard or not?

Could you point me a reference, an answer or it is an open question?
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What is meant by “if there exists a $\rho$-approximation algorithm with $\rho < 2$, then P = NP”?

For example, for the $k$-center problem we want to prove that a 2-approximation algorithm is optimal. A proof is presented on page 39 (Theorem 2.4) in Williamson and Shmoys, The Design of ...
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What is UG-hardness, and how is it different from NP-hardness based on the unique games conjecture?

There are many inapproximability results which rely on the unique games conjecture. For example, Assuming the unique games conjecture, it is NP-hard to approximate the maximum cut problem within ...
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Algorithms for Interval Coloring with Capacities and Demands

We are given a graph $G = (V,E)$, where each edge $e \in E$ has a capacity $c_e$. There are a set of $k$ requests $R_1,\ldots,R_k$. Request $R_i$ has a demand $d_i$, and has an interval $I_i = ...
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Is the dominating set problem constant-factor-approximable in undirected path graphs?

I am interested in the complexity of the minimum dominating set problem (MDSP) in some specific graph class. A graph is an undirected path graph if it is the vertex-intersection graph of a family of ...
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206 views

Why the reduction from MINIMUM SET COVER to MINIMUM DOMINATING SET means $c \log n$-inapproximability for MINIMUM DOMINATING SET

There is a well-known reduction from MINIMUM SET COVER to MINIMUM DOMINATING SET provided at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominating_set#L-reductions (attributed there to Kann 1992, but seen, for ...
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275 views

Approximation results for 3-partition

The 3-partition as defined here is a strongly NP-complete decision problem. Consider one optimization problem of 3-partition where the $m$ subsets each have at most three elements and a sum of not ...
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What are good approximation algorithms for the subset sum problem so far?

By "good", I mean either the algorithm provides a relatively tight bound or it has a relatively fast running time. Any reference is welcome.
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Request for references on multicommodity flow-cut results

This is a somewhat subjective question. I am interested in studying the literature on multicommodity flow-cut results, especially the 'positive' results which show that flow is a good approximation to ...
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Inapproximability of multiterminal cut

In the multiterminal cut the input is a graph $G$ and a subset $T$ of its vertices. The task is to remove the minimum number of edges from $G$ such that there is no path connecting any distinct ...
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232 views

Hardness of Approximation results for Special Set Packing Problem Wanted

Is there any inapproximability result for the following NP-hard problem, which is a special case of the weighted Set Packing Problem? The general Set Packing Problem would be: Given A Collection of ...
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118 views

Approximation results on scheduling under an uncommon constraint

I am looking for any approximation results for unrelated multiprocessor scheduling problem with precedence constraints (minimizing makespan), i.e. $R|prec|C_{max}$, with the constraint that some tasks ...
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202 views

Approximating and bounding Ramsey numbers

Calculating the diagonal Ramsey numbers R(s,s) is hard. There is a famous quote from Joel Spencer: Erdős asks us to imagine an alien force, vastly more powerful than us, landing on Earth and ...
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Approximating the diameter of a convex set defined by semidefinite constraints

A convex subset $C$ of $\mathbb{R}^{n^2}$ is given as the set of positive semidefinite $n\times n$ matrices whose coefficients fulfill some affine equations. Now, if you want to minimize a linear ...
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280 views

Hierarchy theorem for approximation ratios?

As is well known, NP-hard optimization problems can have many different approximation ratios, ranging all the way from having a PTAS to not being approximable within any factor. In between, we have ...
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229 views

Hardness of approximating fractional chromatic number on bounded degree graphs

Is it apx-hard to approximate fractional chromatic number on bounded degree graphs?
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159 views

Is there a constant approximation algorithm for longest path for 3-connected cubic planar graphs or maximal planar graph?

optimization problem Input: a 3-connected cubic planar graph feasible solution: A simple path measure to optimize: length of the simple path Is there a constant approximation algorithm for this ...
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352 views

Is Max-Cut APX-complete on triangle-free graphs?

In the Max-Cut problem, one seeks a subset S of vertices of a given simple undirected graph such that the number of edges between S and the complement of S is as large as possible. Max-Cut is ...
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Inapproximability of set cover: can I assume m=poly(n)?

I am trying to show that a certain problem is inapproximable by a reduction from set cover. My reduction transforms an instance with ground set of size $n$ and $m$ sets into an instance of my problem ...
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hardness of approximation result for a Min-CSP, by reduction from PCPs

Reduction from PCPs allow us to prove hardness of approximation results for a number of constraint satisfaction problems. I've seen such a reductions only for Max-CSPs. Is this possible only for ...
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Hardness of min-max problems

Consider the following min-max problem Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ and an integer $k \geq 0$, delete at most $k$ nodes in $G$ to maximize the size of the minimum dominating set in the residual graph. ...
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227 views

Approximating Random MAX-k-SAT

It is known [de la Vega & Karpinski 2002] that random instances of MAX-3-SAT on $n$ variables can be approximated up to fraction at least 8/9 w.h.p. tending to 1 as $n$ tends to infinity. Should ...
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Results regarding Bounded Diameter Minimum Spanning Tree

Given edge weighted undirected graph the problem asks to output a spanning tree $T$ of minimum weight such that the path between any two vertices in the tree $T$ is bounded by the input $k$. One of ...
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219 views

Connectivity Problem

Hi. I have a problem but not sure if there is some literature on it or whether it has a standard name. Please let me know some reference from where I can begin. Given undirected graph along with some ...
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Maximizing sum edge weights

I am wondering if the following problem has a name, or any results related to it. Let $G = (V,w)$ be a weighted graph where $w(u,v)$ denotes the weight of the edge between $u$ and $v$, and for all ...
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Hardness of additive approximation to Graph Coloring problem.

In paper Approximation Algorithms for the Chromatic Sum, page 18, authors state that based on the fact that the Graph Coloring problem is hard to approximate with a ratio less than 2 (under the ...
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1answer
210 views

Explain 0-extension algorithm

I'm trying to implement an approximation algorithm for the 0-extension problem I found the following paper: Approximation Algorithms for the 0-extension problem by Gruia Calinescu, Howard ...
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239 views

Hitting set of pairwise intersecting families

A hitting set of a family $\mathcal{S} = \{S_1, \dots, S_n\}$ is a subset $H$ of $\bigcup_{i=1}^{n} S_i$ such that $H \cap S_i \ne \emptyset$ for $1 \le i \le n$. The problem to find a minimum hitting ...
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Existence of $opt^c$-approximation of Dominating Set with $c < 1$?

Consider the Dominating Set problem in general graphs, and let $n$ be the number of vertices in a graph. A greedy approximation algorithm gives an approximation guarantee of factor $1 + \log n$, i.e. ...
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Are runtime bounds in P decidable? (answer: no)

The question asked is whether the following question is decidable: Problem  Given an integer $k$ and Turing machine $M$ promised to be in P, is the runtime of $M$ ${O}(n^k)$ with respect ...
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687 views

Compendium of the Best Approximation and Hardness Results for NP optimization problems

Do you know any up-to-date wiki dedicated to NP optimization problems with their best approximation and hardness result? Based on the feedback, it seems that it is safe to assume there is not such a ...
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Why differential approximation ratios are not well-studied comparing to standard ones despite of their claimed benefits?

There is a standard approximation theory where the approximation ratio is $\sup\frac{A}{OPT}$ (for problems with $MIN$ objectives), $A$ - the value returned by some algorithm $A$ and $OPT$ - an ...
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262 views

best approximation ratio for the max-clique problem

Which one is the best approximation algorithm for the max-clique problem? What is it's approximation ratio?
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424 views

Is MAX CUT approximation resistant?

CSP optimization problem is approximation resistant if it is $NP$-hard to beat the approximation factor of a random assignment. For instance, MAX 3-LIN is approximation resistant since a random ...
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Which 2P1R Games are Potentially Sharp?

Two-prover one-round (2P1R) games are an essential tool for hardness of approximation. Specifically, the parallel repetition of two-prover one-round games gives a way to increase the size of a gap in ...
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In-approximability results in severely restricted graph classes

Longest path problem is not polynomial-time approximable to any constant factor in cubic Hamiltonian graphs (Longest path $\notin APX$). I don't know if it remains in-approximable in cubic bipartite ...

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